THE HAZARDS

Hi and welcome. Today, I'm showing a layout which was started over a year ago and finally completed... and a perfect one for this month's theme at Anything But a Card: Out and About.
This layout was started at a workshop at :timetocreate where Julie demonstrated a technique we were to use: spraying white card with metallic paints, swiping over sections with daubers and when dry, putting through an embossing folder.

The board I prepared was cut into different sized strips and put onto black cardstock. I also used an A4 card to tear and distress additional strips of black.. These were placed on the background and some sections were then versamarked through a stencil, and heat embossed... and that's where it was left.

It was left until fairly recently, when iIretrieved it from my UFO pile (getting smaller). I decided to add additional embossing over the black background, some through a stencil and some by just dropping onto the page and carefully heating from some distance, adding more powder as it started to melt. In this way I was able to get flicks of embossing that looked like sea spray on some sections.

 

I added die cut circles put through an embossing folder. inked with silver and also heat embossed with a fine embossing powder, then added the photos.

The photos were taken on our last trip to Tasmania on the beautiful north-east coastline at a charming village, Coles Bay. This bay overlooked the cliff area known as The Hazards.  This is an area we wish to return to and explore further.

There's still time to check out and maybe even enter this month's challenge, so why not pop on over to:anythingbutacard and check out what my teamies have done this  month.

 

Thank you for popping by and leaving some love.

Catch you all again soon.

Cheers, Di

Watercolour

Hi and welcome.
Watercolour has been the inspiration for this month's challenge at ARTastic:
http://artasticchallengeblog.blogspot.com.au/    This has been an interesting idea to play with. I have dabbled with watercolour paintings over the past years (self-taught) and decided to use one of my earlier attempts as part of my layout.
The background was an embossed cardstock, washed with a very wet wash of blues, reds and yellow watercolour paints. The watercolour painting looked too harsh against the background, so I tore the edges to soften the appearance.

 Aquarells were added to the background to extend both the  painting and the photograph, so that it melded together more. Some stamping ( Darkroom Door 'Foliage') completed the layout.

 

The photo is part of the beautiful Japanese Garden at the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Garden in Hobart. This is a beautiful garden, a place of tranquil beauty. The ducks were cut from another photo taken in the  grounds of a motel on the Derwent River at Rosetta, near Hobart.  The white duck is a resident but is often joined by other ducks and seagulls. It was a very inquisitive duck and wandered around the property, popping its head through open doorways as if to say 'Hello. What are you up to?'  It gave us quite a laugh when we were photographing it, as it had the most pronounced waddle we'd ever seen. We are keen to go back to Tassie to  explore more.

Thank you for visiting and for leaving your comments. I look forward to reading them.

Cheers, Di

 



Winter Antics

Hi and welcome. I've been bouncing around different Blogs this last week, discovering amazing artists and their gorgeous work. While doing this, I also found some great challenge sites I hadn't known about. The result of all of this was for me to try some new challenges. Now that I've bookmarked the sites, I hope to visit them more often.
A wintry layout was the requirement at: http://showusyourstuff.blogspot.com.au/. Winters where I live are fairly mild compared to other parts of the country. The photos chosen for this layout were taken on top of Mt Wellington, Hobart while on a trip there in 2010. It was our first experience of ice and snow (even though it was a light covering) and we found it truly amazing. We couldn't get over the plants which had been transformed into crystalline structures, or the huge sheets of ice which had formed on the towers. It really was quite magical in appearance.

 

The  background card stock was stamped, smooshed with Distress Inks and lightly sprayed with Glimmer mists. Die cut and punched crystals made from pearlescent card and mirror board were added and finished with  Crystalina Kindyglitz.
We had a fabulous holiday and Tasmania has become a favourite destination and we're looking forward to going back again.
Thank you for visiting and for your lovely comments.
Cheers, Di

Autumn is a second spring

Hi! Today's post is for the Anything But A Card Challenge: Halloween or Fall.
The photograph for this layout was taken while holidaying in Tasmania, at Hobart's Botanical Gardens, May 2010. This spectacular tree was in all of its autumn splendour, so we were lucky to capture the moment, before the leaves started to seriously fall. While we have some gardens with various species of maples growing in our local area, the colours aren't nearly so brilliant... our weather doesn't become cold enough.

Autumn is a second spring where every leaf is a flower.

For the layout. I stamped the green background paper with Picket Fence D.S. and added some teased out fibre. The brown paper was spritzed with glimmer mists : Coffee Shop, Sugar Maple and Black Cherry. These colours were also used on the distressed corrugated cardboard, cut into the shape of a maple leaf. Edges of the brown paper were distressed, and some sections inked with Distress Inks: Dried Marigold, Rusty hinge and Weathered Wood.

A hand made leaf,  using chiffon, hand-stitching and liquid pearls to finish.

Leaves were die cut from various papers, including altered papers left over from previous projects. I also added some chiffon handmade leaves.
A few swirls and flourishes on the page to give the idea of wind and movement, completed the layout.

Thank you for visiting, Cheers, Di

Waterfall Tag

Hi! I don't regularly make tags, but have enjoyed making them at the odd time. For something different for the ABAC challenge, I've made an interpretative waterfall tag, using a black background.
For the texture component. I firstly dry embossed one side of the tag. This was then versamarked and heat embossed using one of my favourite products, Pipe Dreamink Opals embossing enamels. Other sections of the tag were treated to a free form of  marking, again using Opals.

Russell Falls Tasmania

I ruched up some blue organza, added some open weave wool in variegated tans/ browns, to represent water and rocks, then sewed on some strips of green and silver fibre wools to represent vegetation and sparkles on the water.
Some sewn on pearl shell discs in olive green, aquamarine and bronze colours and sparkly brad, completed the background. Also swooshed a bit of Marvy Markers around the tag edge.
Topping off the layering, I added some mini-photos of Russell Falls and Horseshoe Falls found in Mt Fields National Park, Tasmania. I had fun doing this, and I've had an Aha moment about a layout I want to do.

Thank you for dropping by, Di.

Look up

Hi! Today I'm showing a layout with photos taken, again from one of our Tassie trips, this time from the Hastings Caves. These were the first caves I'd been to and I found them quite amazing, with the wonderful formations and colours highlighted by strategically placed lighting. Our guide was very friendly and informative, so it was a great visit. We were also lucky enough to be able to spot some cave spiders... very long, spindly legs on them.

 

I've used some marbled background paper, because it resembled some of the rocks we saw in the caves. The rest of the papers were also inked with Distress Inks. Spider and web embellishments were painted with white acrylic and glittered while still wet, and I used a fine metallic thread to link the two. I'm going to attempt to flick this over to the Anything But A Card Challenge. The first one for them with an anything goes! This is also my first challenge attempt for quite some time.

Thanks for dropping by, Di

It's All About the Tale

Hi!  Today, I'm sharing photos, layouts and techniques with vellum.
The photos were taken on our trip to Tasmania last year, at the historical township of Richmond.  Here they feature the many ducks and water life that frequent the river flowing through the town. We'd gone down to the river to take photos of the convict-built bridge, and saw an abundance of ducks, geese, cormorants and other waterbirds putting on a show for everyone who was there. It really was quite amazing. The ducks in particular, were very nonchalant about the human visitors, waddling past, waiting for the odd handful of bread scraps from some of the visitors, not in the least bit wary. We'd only planned to stay about 10 minutes, but were there still an hour later.

The vellum techniques displayed in 2 of these layouts were part of a Wacky Wednesday class at Julie's at  timetocreate.com.au

 The photograph was put onto an altered vellum background. A brown vellum was alcohol inked in solid colours, with some metallic silver highlights. and attached to the background with metal brads, put into an embossing folder and through the cuttlebug.I highlighted the embossed section with silver stayzon. A bit of stamping (not really seen here) and the title, inked and finished with glossy accents, completed the page.

This was a piece of patterned and embossed vellum, changed with the addition of Opals embossing powders, Viva precious metals and Inca Gold. A flourish of chipboard, coloured again with Opals, and title completed the page. The ducks really do look as though they are telling a tale.



 





This cormorant was whizzing up and down the river, looking very busy.

 

 

The background paper was foiled in streaks to resemble water shining in the sunlight. A piece of metallic card was embossed with one of my favourite folders "Waterfall", stamping with Picket Fences Distress Stain and stayzon, embellishment coloured with Opals and metallic title completed the page.

Thank you for visiting. Di

Iris folding: not just for cards

I like exploring different techniques using paper, ribbons and lace. After teaching myself how to do Iris Folding on cards with paper and ribbons, I explored the "I wonder..." and developed designs that could be used on layouts, embellishments and as feature backgrounds.
As a family, we love photography, featuring the great outdoors and sometimes, we manage to capture each other pursuing this shared love.
What better way then, was there to combine the two into those "I wonder" monents.

A photo of my son, who hates being photographed, taking photos at Pirate's Bay, Tasmania. Also shown is one of the photographs he was shooting at the time.The iris folding incorporated street maps from Tasmania.

Iris folding has been used as a major feature in the background for these photos, showing the three of us at Russell Falls in Tasmania.
Thank you for looking, Di.